Water-ridden Lights
by Cherished Tenshi
Summary: A maelstrom romance that began with a flick of the cards – Roxas/Naminé. ::: Knitting the way to a future together – Riku/Shiki. AU, Wishing-Fire's 50 Themes Challenge.
1. New Beginnings

**Disclaimer: **Me no own Kingdom Hearts. And, if I did, it would be on the PS3. ;_;

**A/N: **This will be most likely the only AN in the whole thing. XD I'm trying to get back into the swing of fanfiction writing (because I wrote nothing all summer), and challenges always help with that, cursed word limits aside! The pairings I'm doing are Roxas/Naminé and Riku/Shiki. :3 Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**New Beginnings**

"The Flick Rush competition draws ever closer! Two remain of the qualifying competition, but who will grasp victory and advance to the best of the best? Stay right here folks!"

Roxas sprinted through the stampade of people, Flick Rush cards gripped tightly in his hands. He was going to win this, damn it! All of his training wasn't going to fall apart, and so far, it hadn't; he'd made it through to the finals, and while he didn't know who his opponent was, he'd most likely be a walkover.

A small girl holding a deck of cards suddenly walked into his path, and he narrowly avoided having a nasty collison with her. She glanced up, and her eyes reminded Roxas of a frightened owl, but he wasn't in the mood to feel sorry.

"Be careful!" he snapped.

She nodded, snowy-blonde hair bouncing. Roxas stared as she skittered off.

Strange kid.

* * *

The needle wove in and out of the green patchwork with ease. Smiling, Shiki held up it to inspect the unfinished skirt. The helm needed a few more stitches, and then she had to add some pockets, but apart from that, it looked complete. Hopefully Eri would like it...

Shiki held the green thread in her mouth, fumbling about as she tried to get it to go through the tiny, _tiny _hole at the top of the needle. So. _Hard_.

Without warning, two foreign hands lifted up the skirt and looked at it curiously. Shiki dropped the thread from her mouth in alarm. Who would-

"-It's beautiful. Did you make this?"

"Y-yes. My friend did the design, mind..."

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Hey, what's your name?"

W-_what!? _"I-I'm Shiki." She held out her free hand, smiling. "You?"

The silver-haired boy smiled back and took her hand. "Riku."

* * *

**Completed: **1/50.


	2. Shy

**Shy**

As horribly cliché as it was, Roxas couldn't keep his mind off the weird kid. He'd never seen anyone like her before, walking about as through she was in some sort of daze, and to be _that _pale... jeez, had she ever seen a day out in the sunlight before? She had to play Flick Rush, mind; why else would she have had a deck in her hand? Could she have been..?

Nah.

He shuffled through his cards; even for someone who'd been playing as long as he had been, he had a ridiculous amount of them. Eventually, he pulled out his tama sheep, iceguin ace, and necho cat; Oath, King, and Vion respectively. His sister had named them, and, well, it showed.

"Will the two finalists please report to the Flick Arena immediately?"

Roxas shoved his way through people until the arena was in sight.

This would be cakewalk.

* * *

"I am _not _shy!"

Riku only laughed some more, holding his sides to try and hold it in upon Shiki's half-hearted glares. Sighing, she rested Mr. Mew on her lap and looked out. It had been a couple of weeks since she and Riku had met, and well... he was a pretty nice guy. He had an _awful _sense of 'humour', mind.

"You're really not good at glaring, Shiki. At _all_."

She crossed her arms, huffing. She kicked her feet on the brick wall they were sitting on, which was just in front of the school exit. "That's because I'm not someone who laughs at other's misery! This is _horrible!_"

Riku gave her a stony look, all humour wiped from his face. "...Shiki, you got a _tiny _rip in your skirt. It's not _that _bad!"

"But it is!" she wailed in protest. "The material's _impossible_ to find, and-"

"-Okay, okay!"

* * *

**Completed: **2/50.


	3. Breaking the Ice

**Breaking the Ice**

"What the- _you're _the other finalist!?"

The person who stood on the other side of the arena was no other than the dazed girl who'd nearly caused his freak accident early. So she _was _the other finalist... but he hadn't seen her around before! What the heck?

Instead of blushing furiously and threatening to set her face on fire, the girl – Naminé, he recalled from the listings – almost scowled at him before taking out her three cards. A ursa circus, majik lapin, and electricorn. He gulped at the sight of the rare monsters. Maybe this would be difficult... but she was a girl! Girls never played Flick Rush!

They had their cards checked to ensure that the correct cards were assigned to the correct monsters, and then the arena flared to life. Roxas flicked forward Vion first, and Naminé put forth her majik lapin.

"Let the final begin!"

* * *

Shiki rested her head on her hands, trying to watch the movie over the teacher's spiky head. Given that he had managed to somehow _fall asleep _in the middle of class, the classroom was absolutely chaotic.

Something sharp prickled her neck. Looking behind her, she picked up the small paper aeroplane, looking around for its source. Her eyes locked with Riku's own, who quickly ducked and pretended to be working on his art project due for the next class.

Smiling, she turned back in her chair. Something else hit her neck. Looking back again, she found Riku scribbling faster than before, his face brighter than beetroot.

This was getting annoying.

As soon as she turned back, a third paper aeroplane smacked her neck.

Oh for-

What was Riku's _problem?_

Shiki picked up it and threw it straight back at the boy.

She giggled when it poked him in the nose.

* * *

**Completed: **3/50.


	4. Kind

**Kind**

It'd been a landslide victory, but not for him. Naminé Ronsenburg, ridiculous surname aside, had completely and utterly stomped him into the ground with her majik lapin. Needless to say, Roxas was in a huff.

Munching on his third bar of sea-salt ice cream, he was annoyed to see Naminé trotting up towards him, a bar of delicious-looking brawlamari chars in hand. She sat down beside him on the ground wordlessly.

"What?" Roxas snapped, staring at the ground. "If you're gonna pity me, then leave me alone."

"I'm not saying sorry," she said, then shrunk away into her oversized white jacket. "I-I mean, I'd been training for months, and, um, I really wanted to win..."

"I've been training for _years_."

She took another lick of her lolly, then handed him a bar of brawlamari chars.

"Huh?"

"You were looking at it earlier..."

He hesitantly took it, unwrapping the packaging. "Thanks..."

* * *

Riku was, despite his appearance of looking like the grand king of all icebergs, surprisingly kind. It turned out that they sat near each other in a lot of classes, and he'd lend her a pen or pencil when she always forgot her own. Sometimes, she felt as if she'd forgotten it on purpose, just to see him roll his eyes as he took out another fancy pen, but that was ridiculous! She'd known him for, what, a couple of weeks? And he didn't hang around with her outside of classes... still, it was a nice feeling, to be appreciated by someone that wasn't her family.

"Shiki," Riku muttered, taking out another pen. "I swear you do this on purpose. I can't even give you one to keep, because you'll lose it."

"No need to hold such little faith in me, Riku!" she cried. Third blue pen this week, score!

* * *

**Completed: **4/50.


	5. Movie

**Movie**

It turned out that Naminé was also heaving a huge packet of Dream Drops around, and couldn't eat them herself, so the two gorged on them until the sun was setting.

"How come you didn't order them earlier?" Naminé asked. Her tongue had been tinged a bright green from the Dream Drops. "The brawlamari chars, I mean."

"I like sea-salt."

"Yeah, but..." She waved her hand about, then dropped it on her knee. "You were looking at them."

"So you were looking at me?"

She dropped another handful of drops into her mouth, gurgled them about, then swallowed. Roxas shivered at her doing so. "How are you _not_ choking?"

"My brothers taught me how to."

"You have brothers?"

"Two." She was sticking her tongue out, trying to lick off the rest of the food. "You?"

"One sister."

Naminé's eyes travelled up. "I've gotta go; movie's on. See you around?"

"Sure."

* * *

A few days after the latest pen stealing fiasco (Shiki had finally got tired of depriving Riku of pens, and brought twenty from the library), Riku came up to her, holding two tickets in his hands and looking very, very sheepish. His cheeks could currently serve as part-time lanterns.

"Something wrong?" she asked, glancing up from her latest sewing project; a yellow jacket for Eri.

"Y-you sew?"

Stuttering. She leaned closer, eyes narrowed in concern. Very rare for him.

"Yeah? Seriously, what's wrong?"

"There's a movie on tomorrow and, uh, uh..."

"Uh-huh?"

"You know Sora?"

She nodded; pretty hard not to know him, really.

"I wanted to go to the cinema but he can't come because of reasons and Kairi hates the movie I want to see and canyoucomewithme?"

She laughed at his open embarrassment. It was so cute!

…It was _what!?_

Oh no.

"Y-yeah, sure!"

He looked relieved. "Thanks."

* * *

(Word limit is the worst thing ever I swear)

**Completed: **5/50.


	6. Jealousy

**Jealousy**

"I seen you," was his sister's flat sentence as soon as Roxas flopped onto his bed and kicked off his sneakers.

"You see me every day," Roxas said, geninuely confused.

Xion came out from his large cupboards, a series of small jackets slung over her tiny shoulders. "With that girl. Naminé, right?"

"How'd you-"

"We're friends." She hung up a jacket on his door, then whirled around to face him. "So, uh, if you do anything to her, I will dice you open. Remember? When in doubt, give it a smack." She winked.

"I – Xion, I've known her for a few hours!"

"You shared food with her!" she shrieked, grinning. "That's always the first step with you! Sharing the food, then sharing mouths!"

"Xion! I-I've only had two other girlfriends, and one of them broke up with me after a week!"

"I'm just _saying_," she sang mockingly.

Roxas groaned.

* * *

"When the hell did you start hanging out with that Riku guy?"

Shiki paused mid-reach in her locker, whirling up to see Neku's scornful Glare of Disapproval boring down on her. "You heard?"

"Yeah, from Sora." Oh, damn. He leant back on the lockers, twig-thin arms crossed over, elbows jutting out. "He was complaining 'bout how Riku never spent much time with him, and hanging around some kid with a pig. Didn't take much to connect the dots."

She ducked her head low. "S-sorry... and he's a cat!"

He didn't answer.

Shiki risked the glance back up, and was surprised to see Neku grinning at her. "What's up?"

"You like him."

"I do not!"

"You obviously do. Why not just tell him?"

"I've known him for a couple of weeks, and – I still like you guys more. I-I mean-"

"Hey, it's cool. Wanna head out for ice-cream later?"

"S-sure!"

* * *

**Completed: **6/50.


End file.
